Tuesday Trivia

 Mini is not ready for Tuesday. 

The porch hasn’t been started. They got delayed at another job. I can be patient. 

We sang and rang bells from 9-5 on Sunday. Yes, it was a very long, but successful day. 

Brava - the community bell group I ring with is having a concert - August 7 @7:30 and 8 at 3. We might also be ringing on the 9th at a different location. I’ll keep you posted on the details. I hope I know the music by then! 

The pool temps are up and we will be swimming - starting today! Wooo! I love warm water. 

I’m working on a blanket… I’ve got 3 skeins left and it will be finished! I’m getting there!

Happy Birthday, YR!

 Today is Yellow Rose’s birthday! I know that #1 is very upset that he isn’t there to celebrate with her. He will be home in a couple of weeks and he can celebrate with her in person then. It’s sucky, but it is what it is. 

I had my community bell rehearsal last night. Oh how I love to play with that group! It’s the fastest hour of the week. I love just playing and playing and playing… and the music is definitely a challenge!

They are coming on Monday to start the porch project. We are so excited! I’ll take lots of pictures to keep you all in the loop. 

Happy Hump Day!

 I cannot believe it is already Wednesday! Last Thursday we left home and stayed the night at LLB’s because we had a very early Friday morning flight to Jacksonville, Florida for Sunshine’s wedding. We arrived in Jax just in time to meet Yellow Rose’s flight. It was so good to hug her neck! 

We promptly went to the hotel, dropped Mr, and ran off to get LLB at the beach. She had spent the day doing Maid of Honor things, and brunching and beaching it with the other wedding attendants.

We spent some girl time before we went to the church for the rehearsal. We were supposed to sit quietly in the back. We tried. We were too loud and we got a look from LLB. That set us straight. LLB’s beau couldn’t make it, but his brother was there, as he is very good friends with Sunshine. After the rehearsal, we all went to dinner and had a great time.

Satuday was the wedding. It was lovely. The food was great. We chatted it up, danced a lot, and basically had a great time. Mr, LLB, and Yellow Rose thoroughly enjoyed the Jell-O shots! You’ll have to ask them about it when you see them. 

Sunday morning brought another early flight. We arrived at Reagan just in time to meet up with LLB to get a Lyft back to her place. We had some lunch and set off for home. 

We love to go away - especially with family, but there’s no place like home. 

The hard stuff

Is finished! 

We played bells on Sunday and welcomed our new priest and his family. It was a fantastic service. We learned about Jesus - not Washington DC! What a breath of fresh air! After the service we put all the bells and equipment away. Who knew that  all those years ago when my dad was teaching me how to pack a suitcase and a car that those Tetris skills would serve me so well in packing bell equipment into a tiny storage space! The bells are now packed away for the summer - except for the 4 I have here at home to learn my solo. (Which is memorized, thankyouverymuch!)

Yesterday afternoon was also the spring HOA meeting. Amazingly enough, it was only an hour long and was pretty standard. I’ve just finished typing up the minutes and they’ve been sent to the Board for approval. Go me! 

Next up - Sunshine’s wedding! Sunshine is LLB’s VMI Dyke (senior). She is marrying a wonderful man and we are so excited to be able to all be there to celebrate with her. We will meet Yellow Rose at the airport - which makes this even even more special. It’s been too long since we’ve seen her in person - especially with #1 gone doing Army things. We know she is strong and that her family is close, but we still worry and just want to hug her neck and see for ourselves. 

I’m prepping for my VMI Moms’ reunion in July. I’ve started an afgan to decorate with. Maybe I’ll give it away to the person who likes it most at the end of the weekend. We shall see. I’m getting my menu prepped and I’ve started the deep clean. I’m really looking forward to seeing all these ladies! 

Well, laundry awaits. I’d best get to it! 

It’s June!

It’s June! We have so many fun things happening in June. 

This Sunday our new priest has his first service here. The bells are ringing, the guitar is strumming, and we will be singing! Life is so good! 

We’ve had a busy past couple of weeks. We finished washing the windows and exterior doors. The landscapers came and spruced up the gardens. 

The pool guy came and fixed the filter. We had a dinner with our new priest and his family. I got to spend the afternoon with LLB and her beau and then we met Mr and had dinner together. I so enjoy my time with my girly. Mr dropped the old dustbuster and it didn’t take it well, so I’ve invested in a new one. Wow! Huge difference in volume and suckage! We definitely needed a new one - we just didn’t know it. 

Next week I’ll get to see Yellow Rose and I’m really looking forward to spending time with her. #1 will be back from deployment soon. We will see both he and YR this fall. I’m hoping they’ll stay a long while, but I’ll take what I can get. 

Today I’ll be washing interior door windows and boiling eggs for deviled eggs and egg salad. I do live large! 

Window washing and more…

I forget how many windows are in this house. Yesterday Mr and I washed 26 windows and 4 patio doors and we aren’t even close to being done. I’ll think about tackling some more this afternoon. I’ve got 5 patio doors and at least 17 windows left… fortunately they tilt.

Our kitchen window needs a new tilt shoe. That requires a trip to Home Depot to find out if I can even order them. (If I can, I’ll order 25 just to make sure that I have them when I need them.)  If not, I’ll fight with what I have to make it work… I think a new shoe unit would be easier and simpler in the end… 

I decided to go with yellow for an accent color for the front piazza. I love red and blue, but I really needed a pop of color out there. I’m still looking for things to put out there but it’s a start, right? 

We spent most of Saturday afternoon power washing the patio furniture for the pool deck.  (I put my yellow boots by the door when we finished and I think I’m going to leave them there!) 

We finally invested in an outdoor rug. The colors match the colors in the awning. (Look at me go!) Now it looks like grownups actually live here. Yes, we are easily impressed! Check it out! 

We moved some of the other patio furniture around. Change is hard, but change is good. I think it looks welcoming out there now. If we can get the pool temperature up a bit, we might actually swim! Once the pool filter is fixed, we will consider power washing the pool deck. At the moment, we are happy the pool is blue and clear and we do NOT want to accidentally put any dirty water in there. 

The landscapers are coming soon. They will primp up the vegetation back here, and it will be lovely. They will also redesign the front piazza garden - which is full of stuff that looks like weeds and the pink roses my mother loved (and that the deer perpetually eat). If they can keep the roses and put in something more manageable, I’m all for it. If the roses need to go, that’s ok too. We are in need of gardens that don’t require a lot of work or weeding. I was not blessed with my father’s green thumb, nor with his desire to be outside primping the plantings. 

We are hoping the front porch construction will start soon. The county permit office has its own schedule, so patient is what I need to be right now. I’m finding that difficult… alas, I’ve got a lot of deep cleaning and prepping to do before my reunion party… that will keep me busy and keep my mind off the porch. 

Porch Prepping

I’m having this reunion at the end of July and I want my house and yard to look nice. I have painted the chairs and milk cans. I painted the bistro set. I dug out the little table and chairs and refinished them. They came out adorable. 

But I have a lot of space to fill and I’m adding the front porch. The big question is how do I decorate it all? I have lots of chairs - we will be cleaning those up this weekend and painting the ones that are faded. 

At the moment, I think I’ll put the bistro set on the new front porch. I’m building a surround for the A/C unit that’s on the piazza. I think I’ll get 2 new rockers for the front porch so I can leave the ones I have where they are. I’d like to put the milk cans on the front porch to keep them out of the weather. So, that leaves an empty area even emptier… 

And then there’s the pool deck… as I said before, I have lots of chairs. I have 2 tables. I have a rug coming next week, but if it arrives and I hate it, I will need to start over. I want it to look welcoming… right now, everything looks empty! LoL! 

I’ll figure something out… stay tuned!